The Shooting
by Thistle of Liberty
Summary: - Ellery Queen - Ellery puts himself and a friend in a dangerous situation by disobeying his father. Now he must answer to his father. Contains spanking of an adult. Don't like, don't read. Otherwise please read&review.


**I don't own Ellery, Inspector Queen or Velie. I do own Tom Havers and the young nurse but I don't really want'em.**

* * *

Ellery silently watched as his father paced the hospital waiting room. He was nervously chewing his lip, Inspector Queen hadn't been this angry with him in years. And the last time had ended up quite unfortunately for Ellery's behind.

"Dad", he began, but was interrupted.

"Later, son", the aged gentleman said, worry and anger clear on his face. Ellery didn't dare do anything but obey so he quieted and began to intently watch his shoes. He wished he could sink through the solid linoleum floor and disappear. His face was flushed with shame and he felt tense with worry and guilt. He wished the day had never begun.

* * *

It had started out good enough, he having a huge breakthrough on a case. He had shared his deductions with his father and Tom Havers, an old university friend. The case concerned a large gambling league and Ellery had figured out where their hideout must be. He had been excited and managed to convince his father to do a raid, in spite of the lacking evidence. Inspector Queen however, must face the much more challenging task of convincing his boss. He had after some time managed to convey to his nearly bouncing son that this might very well take all day but that Ellery under no circumstances could ever as much as get close to the place himself.

At first, Ellery had no intention of disobeying his father but as the day went on without word from the Inspector he became more and more restless. He paced the apartment floor, chewed down his fingernails, snapped at Tom and made a complete nuisance of himself. As noon passed and his dad still hadn't called he began to consider disobeying his father, just take a peek at the place he was convinced was the leagues hideout. At two, he began considering the risks. At three, he made a plan. At four, he approached Tom. The man was reluctant but Ellery had already made up his mind and quickly managed to talk his friend into it.

After arming themselves with guns they made they way through the city. The place they were headed to was in the outskirts and not exactly a fine area. They slowly made their way closer to the place. As Ellery had figured out the location from maps he had no idea what it actually was. Finally they arrived at their destination.

"This is it", Ellery had whispered.

"Looks like an old warehouse to me", Tom replied.

"Well, they can't really have it look like an illegal gambling den, can they?" Ellery asked, voice filled with sarcasm. Tom's reply was cut short by a voice appearing behind them.

"Well, well, well. What've we got here?"

Ellery gulped and slowly turned. Behind him was an absolute gorilla of a man, gun in hand and a grin on his face. Ellery opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by a large hand clamped over his mouth. He glanced sideways and saw that Tom suffered the same treatment.

"Not a word, boys", the gorilla warned, "now, hand over your guns."

Grudgingly, Ellery obeyed and signed for Tom do the same.

"Now turn 'round", the large man ordered, "we're gonna visit the boss." He snickered in a very unsettling way and waved with his gun at them. Without really thinking Ellery leapt at him. He managed to get him on his back but not before the gorilla fired a shot. Not noticing anything but the ringing sound Ellery wrestled the gun from the man's hand and brought it down hard at his temple. It had the desired effect, the man went limp with a groan. Rapidly breathing Ellery tried to determine whether he'd been hurt or not. He turned to Tom and early choked when saw the blood o him. The young man was dreadfully pale and spluttered incoherently. Ellery acted on pure instinct, rushing forward and easing his friend down on the ground. He searched Tom's body for an entrance wound and to his relief found it just below the right shoulder. He noticed footsteps approaching and looked up just in time to see a uniformed officer coming up to them.

"Officer, my friend's been shot. You need to get an ambulance", Eller pleaded. The officer nodded curtly before returning to his patrol car, parked a couple of hundred meters away. Ellery simply kept holding Tom's body and tried to speak reassuringly to the pale form. He rather lost his idea of time for after what felt like seconds a hand was placed on his shoulders. He looked up to see the face of a man in ambulance uniform.

"We're taking your friend to the hospital now", he explained, "but you need to stay here with the police."

Ellery nodded, eager to please the man who seemed able to help Tom. He removed his now bloodstained hands from Tom and pushed himself to his feet. He swayed for a moment before strong hands gripped his shoulders. He looked behind him only to see the familiar face of his father's sergeant.

"Velie", he said, a little groggily, "is dad here?"

"No, Mr Queen. He's on his way to the hospital and I've got orders to take you there as well", Velie said and gestured to the car behind him.

"Oh…" Ellery said and nodded slowly. "I see." But he didn't move. Velie unexpectedly gently took hold of his shoulders and led him to the car. There he pushed Ellery into a seat before driving off at full speed.

When they reached the hospital Ellery was feeling less groggy and managed to make it into the hospital himself. He was greeted by the figure of his father. When Ellery entered the little man spun around, tense and ready to attack, but when he saw who it was he relaxed.

"Ellery", he said, the voice revealing his anxiety, "are you all right?"

"Yeah, Dad, I'm fine", Ellery hastened to reassure his father, "just a little overwhelmed."

"Well, Tom's in surgery. The bullet went rather deep, I understand", the Inspector informed his suddenly very pale son. Ellery felt sick. Tom in surgery!

"I'm sorry Dad," he stammered, "this is all my fault…"

"We'll talk later, Ellery", his father simply said.

* * *

And that's how he ended up in his current position, anxiously awaiting any news of Tom. Ellery was ready to die of relief when a smiling nurse entered the room.

"He's stable, gentlemen", she informed them and was met with two great sighs of relief. "His mother and his fiancée is with him, but he's asleep. You should probably come back tomorrow if you want to talk to him."

"Thank you, nurse", the Inspector smiled at the young woman, "we'll come back tomorrow then." He nodded to her and began to leave. He stopped, however, when he noticed his son wasn't following him. He simply raised his eyebrows at the pale young man who immediately gulped and scrambled to his feet, hurrying out after his father. It was amazing how the small, elderly man could be more scary than an armed thug, Ellery thought as he stepped into the waiting police car after his father. They were silent during the drive home, the Inspector staring straight forwards and Eller nervously fidgeting.

Once they reached their apartment Inspector Queen simply got out of the car and entered the house. Ellery, not wanting to anger his father even more, followed. As soon as they entered the apartment the small man whirled around so he faced Ellery.

"Would you care to explain?" he said, dangerously calm. Ellery squirmed under his penetrating gaze.

"Well… I and Tom, sort of, went to the gambling league's hideout", he answered, not even bothering trying to lie.

"Didn't you understand when I told you that you under any circumstances must not go to there alone?" the Inspector continued the interrogation. Ellery simply lowered his head and muttered a low "yes".

"Sorry?"

"I understood", Ellery sighed, knowing what was probably awaiting him, and more importantly, that he deserved it.

"Then I can't see any reason to hold this off. Get a hairbrush, Ellery."

Ellery quickly moved to do as he was told and returned moments later with a massive, wooden hairbrush. His bottom nearly stung simply looking at it. His father took the object and then moved to sit on a chair.

"You know the drill", he said and invitingly patted his knee. Ellery sighed and unbuckled his belt, pulled down his pants and shorts and then obediently positioned himself across his father's lap.

The Inspector wasted no time in making his anger known clearly to Ellery. The first swat came down with breathtaking force. Ellery jerked and made a little yelp. The brush was brought down again, with as much force. Inspector Queen continued spanking like this until he noticed his son's ragged breath and clenched fists. A sure sign Ellery was close to tears. He began swatting just below his son's buttocks, something which always managed to bring Ellery to tears. And sure enough, soon he could hear a sob escaping his sons lips.

Ellery was now squirming quite a bit and continued sobbing. He felt like his whole backside was burning and every swat increased the rapidly building fire. His father hadn't said a word yet and it worried him because then this would probably prove to be an exceptionally long spanking. Suddenly he jerked with pain when his father delivered an extra hard swat. When the swats continued with that intensity Ellery couldn't hold back a wail.

"Why am I spanking you?" the Inspector asked, all the while mercilessly spanking.

"Because – ow – I – ah – disobeyed", Ellery replied, still sobbing hard.

"Yes. And?"

"I – ouch – caused Tom – ah – harm."

"Did you?" Inspector Queen inquired.

"Yeees!" Ellery wailed, "I'm sorry!"

"Did you shoot Tom?" his father asked gently.

"No! Bu-but if I hadn't… hadn't said insisted we went – ah – he wouldn't.., wouldn't ha.. have been shot."

"You did not harm Tom. You can't be held responsible for that thug shooting him. But you are responsible for disobeying and putting you and Tom in a dangerous situation, which lead to Tom getting shot", the Inspector lectured.

"I'm.. – ah – I'm s-sooorryyy!" Ellery wailed .

"Do you understand what I'm telling you?"

"Yeees! P-please stop now!! I'm really s-sorry!"

The Inspector merely grunted and continued spanking.

"Daaaad! I- I understand! I'm s-sorry for disobeyin' an' doing dang'rous stuff. I'm soooorry! Please stop!" Elleyr bellowed and continued to sob until he simply had no energu left ad simply lay still across his father's lap.

The Inspector finished with a few, hard swats to Ellery's sit spot before he put the brush away and pulled his son into a hug. Ellery sobbed quietly into his father's shoulder.

"You're forgiven, son", the Inspector gently told him. "But you need to apologize to Tom."

"Sure", Ellery replied, not really wanting to leave his father's arms yet. "I guess I pretty much blew the operation no, eh?"

"Probably", his father said, sighing, "but I'm more concerned with your health. Now get off me before I die of your weight."

Ellery pulled back and grinned at his father.

"You didn't seem overly concerned a moment ago."

Inspector Queen grinned back at his still sniffling son.

"Don't talk back!" he joked, "Now sit down and I'll get you a cup of warm milk."

Ellery silently rolled his eyes. He was twenty-six and didn't drink warm milk, but he had a feeling arguing with his father would be fruitless so he just sat down on a couple of cushions in the sofa and watched as his father disappeared into the kitchen. Ellery pulled up his legs and put his arms around them. His eyes were puffy and he was sniffling.

Five minutes or so later his father returned with a steaming cup, a sandwich and a handkerchief. He handed Ellery the latter and ordered him to blow his nose. Ellery, feeling very much like a five year old, obeyed. After that he was handed the cup, which as expected contained warm milk, and the sandwich he was ordered to finish both and then go to his room.

"My room, Dad?" Eller suspiciously said.

"Didn't I say?" the Inspector gave his son an innocent look, "You're grounded for two weeks."

"Dad..!" Ellery began to argue.

"Unless you want to end up over my lap again and the spend the rest of the year grounded?"

"No, Dad. That's quite all right…"

Inspector Queen smiled at his puffy-eyed and adorably young-looking son and pulled him into another close hug.

"I love you, son", he said.

"Love you too, Dad", his son replied and returned the hug.

* * *

  
**And hurray for cliché endings. But never mind, please leave me some feedback if you've read this far anyways.**


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